Design and application of automatic throttle manifold in Micro Flux Control (MFC)

Micro Flux Control (MFC) drilling technology has advantages of detecting early small overflow and leakage and controlling the bottom hole pressure precisely. The core component in this technology is ground automatic throttle manifold, whose agility and accuracy is directly related to whether pressure control can be achieved and its accuracy. This technology has been widely used by several foreign companies, who do not sell relevant equipment and tools, but only provide technical service with extremely high price. To break the monopoly of foreign technology and to reduce drilling cost as well as to develop MFC drilling technology with independent intellectual property right, a set of ground automatic throttle manifold was designed by comprehensively considering the relationship between well bore pressure distributions and throttling flow capacity and based on fluid dynamics and automatic control theory, The field test confirmed that this set of equipment has an excellent function of automatic throttle control. The MFC of well bore can be achieved in 30 s and the pressure error is less than 0.1 MPa. Design and successful field application of this throttle manifold paved the way for the promoting of MFC drilling technology in China and equipment localization.